Fiona strengthened into a hurricane Sunday as it bore down on Puerto Rico, where people braced for severe wind and torrential rains.

Forecasters said “historic” levels of rain were expected to produce landslides and heavy flooding, with up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) forecast in isolated areas.

“It’s time to take action and be concerned,” said Nino Correa, Puerto Rico’s emergency management commissioner.

Fiona was centered 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Ponce, Puerto Rico, on Sunday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph).

Anxiety ran high across the island with Fiona due just two days before the anniversary of Hurricane Maria, a devastating Category 4 storm that hit on Sept. 20, 2017, destroying the island's power grid and causing nearly 3,000 deaths.

More than 3,000 homes still have only a blue tarp as a roof, and infrastructure remains weak.

“I think all of us Puerto Ricans who lived through Maria have that post-traumatic stress of, ‘What is going to happen, how long is it going to last and what needs might we face?’” said Danny Hernández, who works in the capital of San Juan but planned to weather the storm with his parents and family in the western town of Mayaguez.

He said the atmosphere was gloomy at the supermarket as he and others stocked up before the storm hit.

“After Maria, we all experienced scarcity to some extent,” he said.

The storm was forecast to pummel cities and towns along Puerto Rico’s southern coast that have not yet fully recovered from a string of strong earthquakes that hit the region starting in late 2019.

Officials reported several road closures across the island as trees and small landslides blocked access.

More than 100 people had sought shelter across the island by Saturday night, the majority of them in the southern coastal city of Guayanilla.

Many Puerto Ricans also were concerned about blackouts. Luma, the company that operates power transmission and distribution, warned of “widespread service interruptions.” As of Sunday morning more than 320,000 customers were without power.

Puerto Rico’s power grid was razed by Hurricane Maria and remains frail, with reconstruction starting only recently. Outages are a daily occurrence.

In the southwest town of El Combate, which is in the storm's path, hotel co-owner Tomás Rivera said he was prepared but worried about the “enormous” amount of rain he expected. He noted that a nearby wildlife refuge was eerily quiet.

“There are thousands of birds here, and they are nowhere to be seen,” he said. “Even the birds have realized what is coming, and they're preparing.”

Rivera said his employees brought bedridden family members to the hotel, where he has stocked up on diesel, gasoline, food, water and ice, given how slowly the government responded after Hurricane Maria.

“What we’ve done is prepared ourselves to depend as little as possible on the central government,” he said.

It’s a sentiment shared by 70-year-old Ana Córdova, who arrived Saturday at a shelter in the north coastal town of Loiza after buying loads of food and water.

“I don’t trust them,” she said, referring to the government. “I lost trust after what happened after Hurricane Maria.”

Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, said he was ready to declare a state of emergency if needed and activated the National Guard as the Atlantic hurricane season’s sixth named storm approached.

“What worries me most is the rain,” said forecaster Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service in San Juan.

Fiona was predicted to drop 12 to 16 inches (30 to 41 centimeters) of rain over eastern and southern Puerto Rico, with as much as 25 inches (64 centimeters) in isolated spots.

The National Weather Service warned late Saturday that the Blanco River in the southeast coastal town of Naguabo had already surpassed its banks and urged people living nearby to move immediately.

Pierluisi announced Sunday that public schools and government agencies would remain closed on Monday.

Fiona was forecast to swipe the Dominican Republic on Monday and then northern Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands with the threat of heavy rain. It could threaten the far southern end of the Bahamas on Tuesday.

A hurricane warning was posted for the Dominican Republic's eastern coast from Cabo Caucedo to Cabo Frances Viejo.

Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floods washed his home away, officials said. The storm also damaged roads, uprooted trees and destroyed at least one bridge.

St. Kitts and Nevis also reported flooding and downed trees, but announced its international airport would reopen on Sunday afternoon. Dozens of customers were still without power or water, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.

In the eastern Pacific, Tropical Storm Madeline was forecast to cause heavy rains and flooding across parts of southwestern Mexico. The storm was centered about 155 miles (245 kilometers) south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes Sunday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph).

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico —

Hurricane Fiona left hundreds of people stranded across Puerto Rico after smashing roads and bridges, with authorities still struggling to reach people four days after the storm smacked the U.S. territory, causing historic flooding.

Video above: 'Large and intense' Category 4 Hurricane Fiona nears Bermuda

For now, government officials are working with religious groups, nonprofits and others braving landslides, thick mud and broken asphalt by foot to provide food, water and medicine for people in need, but they are under pressure to clear a path so vehicles can enter isolated areas soon.

Nino Correa, commissioner for Puerto Rico’s emergency management agency, estimated that at least six municipalities across the island had areas that were cut off by Fiona, which struck as a Category 1 hurricane and was up to Category 4 power Wednesday as it headed toward Bermuda.

Living in one of those areas is Manuel Veguilla, who has not been able to leave his neighborhood in the north mountain town of Caguas since Fiona swept in on Sunday.

“We are all isolated,” he said, adding that he worries about elderly neighbors including his older brother who does not have the strength for the long walk it takes to reach the closest community.

Veguilla heard that municipal officials might open a pathway Thursday, but he doubted that would happen because he said large rocks covered a nearby bridge and the 10-foot space beneath it.

Video below: Video shows damage to Puerto Rico from Hurricane Fiona

Neighbors have shared food and water dropped off by nonprofit groups, and the son of an elderly woman was able to bring back basic supplies by foot Wednesday, he said.

Veguilla said that in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm that struck five years ago and resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, he and others used picks and shovels to clear the debris. But Fiona was different, unleashing huge landslides.

“I cannot throw those rocks over my shoulder,” he said.

Like hundreds of thousands of other Puerto Ricans after Fiona, Veguilla had no water or electricity service, but said they there is a natural water source nearby.

Fiona sparked an islandwide blackout when it hit Puerto Rico's southwest region, which already was still trying to recover from a series of strong earthquakes in recent years. Some 62% of 1.47 million customers were without power four days after the storm amid an extreme heat alert issued by the National Weather Service. Some 36% of customers, or nearly half a million, did not have water service.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent hundreds of additional personnel to help local officials as the federal government approved a major disaster declaration and announced a public health emergency on the island.

Neither local nor federal government officials had provided any damage estimates as Puerto Rico struggles to recover from the storm, which dropped up to 30 inches of rain in some areas. More than 470 people and 48 pets remained in shelters.

“Our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico who have endured so much suffering over the last couple of years,” said Brad Kieserman, vice president of operations and logistics at the Red Cross.

Video below: Retired nurse heads to Puerto Rico to help with recovery efforts

After Puerto Rico, Fiona pummeled the Dominican Republic and then swiped past the Turks and Caicos Islands as it strengthened into a Category 4 storm. Officials there reported relatively light damage and no deaths, though the eye of the storm passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday.

“God has been good to us and has kept us safe during this period when we could have had a far worse outcome,” Deputy Gov. Anya Williams said.

Fiona was forecast to pass near Bermuda early Friday, and then hit easternmost Canada early Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The center said Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph on Thursday morning. It was centered about 485 miles southwest of Bermuda, heading north-northeast at 13 mph.

The hurricane was forecast to pass just west of Bermuda late Thursday. A hurricane warning was in effect for the British territory.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Bad Bunny’s ex-girlfriend is suing the superstar for at least $40 million over a well-known voice recording she provided the singer before he became famous.Carliz De La Cruz Hernández, whose breathy “Bad Bunny, baby” recording was included in two of the artist’s songs, claimed in a lawsuit filed this month in a Puerto Rico court that her voice and the phrase she came up with are being used without her permission.The lawsuit, which was first reported by online Puerto Rico news site Noticel, notes that the phrase was used in the “Pa Ti,” song, which has more than 355 million views on YouTube and more than 235 million reproductions on Spotify. It also was used in the “Dos Mil 16” song, which has more than 60 million views on YouTube and 280 million reproductions on Spotify.The lawsuit states that De La Cruz’s “distinguishable voice” also has been used without her consent for songs, records, promotions, worldwide concerts, television, radio and social and musical platforms.“Since then, thousands of people have commented directly on Carliz’s social media networks, as well as every time she goes to a public place, about the ‘Bad Bunny, baby.’ This has caused, and currently causes, that De La Cruz feels worried, anguished, intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious,” the lawsuit states.Also sued is Noah Kamil Assad Byrne, manager for Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Martínez Ocasio.Assad and representatives of Bad Bunny did not immediately respond to a message for comment.De La Cruz and Martínez first became a couple in 2011. A year later, they began studying at the University of Puerto Rico in the north coastal town of Arecibo while also working at a nearby grocery store. The lawsuit stated that during that time, Martínez was constantly creating songs and rhythms and would seek opinions from De La Cruz, who also was in charge of scheduling his parties and handling invoices and contracts.The birth of the phrase, “Bad Bunny, baby,” came about in 2015, and Martínez asked De La Cruz to record herself saying it. She did so in a bathroom one day while staying with a friend because that's where it was least noisy and then sent it to him, the lawsuit stated.On Jan. 1, 2016, Martínez asked De La Cruz to marry him, and they made plans to do so in July 2016. But in April 2016, Rimas Entertainment signed Martínez. That same year, De La Cruz was accepted into the University of Puerto Rico’s law school, and she ended her relationship with Martínez in May 2016.They got back together in 2017, but once again went their separate paths.Then in May 2022, a Bad Bunny representative reached out to De La Cruz, saying he needed to talk to her.“In that call, (the representative) said, ’I know you don’t like to talk about Voldemort (referring to Martínez), but I need to ask you something,” the lawsuit stated.He offered her $2,000 to buy the recording of her voice. De La Cruz declined and then spoke with someone at Rimas Entertainment who also offered to buy it, saying the recording would be used in the upcoming album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” the lawsuit stated.But a deal was never reached, and the song was published without De La Cruz’s consent, according to the lawsuit.

BEIJING —

For a teenager whose chances of survival were slim when he was born, just making it to the starting line at the Olympics is a miraculous achievement in itself.

William Flaherty will ski for Puerto Rico on Sunday in the giant slalom at the Beijing Games. Although winning a medal is not really within his reach, his health and his studies are.

Flaherty was born in Cincinnati and moved to Puerto Rico when he was 6. He was diagnosed with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis when he was 3. Known as HLH, it's an often fatal disease where the immune system attacks the body's organs.

"We asked, 'On a scale of 1 to 10, and 1 is you're super healthy and 10, you're dead, where is William?'" said Ann Flaherty, William's mother. "And they gave him a 9.5. And that hit us in the gut.

"There were days we didn't know if he would live through the day," she said. "I'll never forget holding my child and not knowing if he was going to live."

The 17-year-old Flaherty has had more than 30 operations in his life, including a bone marrow transplant from his older brother Charles — himself a former Olympic skier. After the Beijing Games, Flaherty will have an operation to have part of his fibula removed and molded into a new jawbone.

"It's just about every two years something annoying comes up," said Flaherty, pointing out a scar on the right side of his face where he had a tumor removed two years ago.

Flaherty said even a cold can lay him up for two weeks, so he took extra precautions over the last two years amid the coronavirus pandemic. He spent more than a year in what he dubbed "super quarantine."

"It definitely affected me. Not so much my training, but, like, the social life I get from my training," said Flaherty, who trains in Colorado. "I was able to continue training, but I would have to wear an N95 mask the whole time and I couldn't ride the lift with anyone, I couldn't really talk to my friends in the start house.

"I would finish training, just come home and kind of hide in my bedroom, stay away from people as much as possible, which was kind of tough on me mentally … it was definitely pretty challenging mentally."

As a teenager, Flaherty has had to balance his training with medical appointments and going to school.

He has managed to maintain straight A's despite having to study on chairlifts and do final exams sometimes only days before racing. He had his English final three days before he left for Beijing.

Flaherty is one of two athletes representing Puerto Rico at the Beijing Games. Kellie Delka will compete in women's skeleton. The pair were flagbearers at the opening ceremony.

After the Olympics, Flaherty plans to take a year off from school to recover from surgery and then head to college to study aerospace engineering.

Hitting the slopes, though, gives him the respite from his health issues.

"Skiing is really helpful because it forces me to focus on one thing and once I'm on skis, I can only focus on skiing," he said. "It's a good way to take your mind off of everything else that's going on in our crazy lives.

"All my medical problems have definitely helped with my motivation. I really want to prove to all the other transplant survivors that they can do whatever they want in life. Just because you have medical complications in the past, it doesn't define who you are today, and you can move on with your life and keep going and achieve whatever you want."

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It's clear the country won’t be adding any more stars to the American flag any time soon.

Efforts to make Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico official states have stalled in Congress.

However, while D.C. citizens still have access to many government programs that citizens of all the 50 states enjoy, Puerto Rico citizens are ineligible for many. 

Take, for instance, Supplemental Security Income, SSI.

It’s a program that helps Americans with illnesses or disabilities get by.

Those who live in D.C. qualify for it, but those who live in Puerto Rico do not, even though people in both places pay federal taxes.

Why? When Congress passed SSI decades ago, they didn’t include residents of the island.

SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE

Well, the debate over the rights of Puerto Rico citizens will be front and center in the Supreme Court this week.

The case is called United States v. Vaello-Madero.

Oral arguments are on Tuesday.

It’s about a man named Jose Luis Vaello-Madero. In 2013, he moved from his home of 28 years in New York City back to Puerto Rico. When he became ill he filed for SSI benefits.

If he moved to, let’s say, Florida instead, it would have been no problem. However, when the Social Security Administration learned where he moved, they cut him off from the program and demanded he pay back $28,000 worth of benefits he had already received. 

The Biden administration is split on the issue.

President Joe Biden has issued statements calling for Puerto Rico citizens to be covered by government programs like SSI.

“There can be no second-class citizens,” Biden said. 

Biden’s Justice Department, however, has done the opposite, actually arguing against Vaello-Madero in court.

"The Constitution vests Congress, not the courts, with responsibility for making appropriate changes,” attorneys wrote in legal briefs.

While the high court is not expected to issue an opinion on this case for months, the outcome could dramatically change what Puerto Rico’s 3 million-plus residents are entitled to.

That would potentially make government programs even more costly to American taxpayers since more people would be eligible to enroll.

From the streets of Chicago to Puerto Rico, a school dropout to a college graduate, the president and CEO of the Latino Community Development Agency in Oklahoma is using his life experience to help thousands of Latinos."Well, I was a Puerto Rican kid born and raised in Chicago – southside Chicago, where all the mess is still going on today. A mom that didn't know how to raise a kid, so I was raised by the streets," said Raul Font, president of the Latino Community Development Agency. "At some point in time, my mom, Puerto Rican, decided, 'I need some help. I need to be raising these kids in Puerto Rico.' So, We go to Puerto Rico, and I quit school. I quit school at 11 years old. I decided that school was not for me, and I was mad at the whole world because everyone had parents, nice houses and stuff, and I didn't.""You said you were raised by the streets at the age of 11, moved to Puerto Rico. It's a culture shock, culture change. What was that like for you?" sister station KOCO 5 asked."We had a problem of fitting in. We didn't know where to fit in, and I personally not having a home and not having a country, it was pretty hard," Font said. "We got in a lot of trouble, but we were really not into gangs."What kind of trouble did Font get into as a child?"I could still open your home in about 18 seconds, most likely," Font said. "I knew how to push the envelope. But then, at that age, that preteen age where you really get in trouble, here comes the basketball. This guy comes up and says, 'Just bounce the ball every time you ...' I started going to the basketball court, and I started seeing them play, and I started kind of imitating them. And then I realized that maybe there is something else that I can do."Font said basketball gave him the structure he needed to get to where he is today. "The structure and the support, because behind every basketball team there is someone there that is always watching you and making sure that you are at practice and that you're doing the right thing," Font said. "Nobody around in our neighborhood went to college. So, everybody kept on saying, 'You can take this to college.' I don't know what that was, but if they were going to pay me to go to college, why not? Why not try it?"Font also explained how he got involved in the Latino Community Development Agency."In the early 80s, I worked for the State Department of Education. Then, I was maybe the highest-ranked Latino in any state or federal program around, which is sad," he said. "But I thought that sitting at the table was important. Finally, we got the attention of several leaders in the community that said, 'Hey, there's not an agency that serves Latinos. How about if we start petitioning the United Way for some funding and start one?' A group of three of us, plus me, we decided to go to the United Way. And the United Way, in their wisdom, decided to give us $42,000. And that's how we got started.People who do this kind of work don't do it for recognition. Font was recently named one of the 100 most powerful people in Oklahoma."If it's a personal recognition and it doesn't yield anything for the community, then it's, what am I going to do – take a plaque and put it in my office or go away two years from now and it doesn't do anything? It has to produce something for the community," Font said. "What happens at LCDA is not because of me. It's because of the people that we hire and their passion."Watch the video above for the full story.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether it is unconstitutional to exclude people living in Puerto Rico from Supplemental Social Security Income.

The justices said Monday they would hear an appeal, first filed by the Trump administration, of a lower-court ruling that held that residents of the U.S. territory should have the same access to SSI benefits as older, disabled and blind Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The administration argued that a pair of 40-year-old Supreme Court decisions already upheld the federal law that created SSI and excluded Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories from it.

In recent months, a federal judge ruled that Puerto Rico residents should have access to other federal welfare benefits from which they have been excluded as well. A federal judge in Guam said residents of that Pacific island also should be able to collect SSI.

A separate program, Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, covers residents of the territories, but it has more stringent eligibility requirements and pays less generous benefits than SSI.